Punk rock turns 40, and it's far from anarchy in the U.K.

Punk rock turns 40 this year, and perhaps surprisingly, the birthday of what started as a radical counter-culture movement is being honoured by such august institutions as the British Library and the Museum of London.

Former punk rocker John Armstrong considers that pretty hard to imagine given that the movement started with the song Anarchy in the U.K. by the Sex Pistols in 1976.

Armstrong, a former member of one of Vancouver's early punk rock bands, The Modernettes, and author of punk rock memoir Guilty of Everything, says he's surprised to see the anniversary honoured at all — but especially by such established institutions.

"The people who are putting this on are quite likely spiritual kin to the people who sold sterling silver safety pins at Macy's," he told On The Coast host Stephen Quinn, referring to sellers of the popular punk fashion accessory.

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"I didn't think anything of it. I didn't think many people involved in [punk] do."

Armstrong first heard the Sex Pistols' Anarchy in the U.K. in 1977, and said he'd "been waiting his whole life" to hear music like that.

Living in the Lower Mainland, Armstrong says a punk rock scene did emerge, but it was a small, tight-knit one.

"The first wave of punk rock bands in Vancouver were very, very close," he said. "If you were at a gig and there were 50 people in the audience, those were the members of all the other bands that weren't playing that night. We basically just took turns watching each other play."

So, after 40 years, what is the legacy of punk rock?

"The only real enduring thing from punk rock … was 'do-it-yourself,'" Armstrong said. "You could do anything you wanted to do. It didn't have to subscribe to anybody's doctrine. You could play any kind of music you wanted to play in any way you wanted."

With files from CBC Radio One's On The Coast

To hear the full story, click the audio labelled: 40 years later, what's punk rock's legacy? We ask one of Vancouver's first punks